BlackHawkDown - The wait is over. Yes people, it's ready for release. But before I do, I would like to thank Davros for the many nights trying to help me work out a way around some of the many problems I had. Also, thanks to all of the testers at EBDA, and to Warhammer for cleaning up some of the loose ends that I was running out of time to finish. Thanks also to all of the people at GhostRecon.net for the help you gave me: even though I didn't ask you a lot of questions or post a lot of posts, I did read all of your posts and downloaded a lot of your missions and got a lot of ideas from them. Thanks.
I would also like to talk about the making of BlackHawkDown. Well it's taken a little over a year, on and off to finish it. I would get into it and finish a lot of it, but get stuck on a problem and stop, have a week or so to think of a way around what I was trying to achieve, work it out and back to the map to work on the next problem. Plus I had some time off for some cancer treatments and a lot of checkups. But yes a whole year, I started with the map and I wanted it to be a big map and it is, so it took a lot longer to finish then I thought. Also, it was a challenge, trying to make the story line ( one of my favorite movies BLACKHAWKDOWN ) fit in to the map, with the limited props we have. I also had to take a lot of props out, a lot of detail out and nearly all of the sounds as well, after spending months placing them on the map. The reason for this was the mission scripting - there was so much going on in the mission script, that the game started to lag. So removing over 500 small props I found a balance for the lag which is about 50 to 70 FPM.
This is the most scripting I have ever done, with over 4000 lines of scripting which includes 5 different timers, the cars, heli's, the Ai's, wall explosion, usable keypads and computers. Plus you can call for air strikes, artillery, weapon upgrades and a lot of scripting for backup scripting. This means if for some reason the main scripting stops, one of the many backups will kick in, so the story line still runs. I guess the hardest thing was the timing, making everything look real, the best I could. For example, the heli's (at the beginning), making them fly, land and crash like a real heli. The heli's that fire off their missiles and hitting their targets and their sounds. And in the underground bunker making the defcon lights and the sounds of the computers run in time.
There are a lot of new props or old ones that have been renewed - there's the lights: they consist of four different types:- (1) non-destructible - you shoot them and the light doesn't break. (2) flickers - you shoot them and the light doesn't break but the light flickers. (3) on and off lights - they can be turned on or off. (4) security light - a rotating red light that can be turned on or off. There's also switches, doors, control panels and some of Davros' props: mines, artillery, barriers and a see through box.
The last thing that makes the map is the custom sounds - adding music, background sounds that change through the mission, random gun shooting, heli speech, security clearance and so on.
This is a TVT mission and can be played as one player to see how alI the missions run. The missions are - hamburger hill - siege - tdm - rvsa - satellite intel takeover and the main mission TVTM there are two types of this. I couldn't get the heli's to work without crashing the game, At one part I did get the heli's to work on a dedicated server, but all the other vehicles ( eg.cars ) stopped working. Since the cars were the main vehicles for the mission I decided to stop work on the heli's. So I have added two main missions (1) TVTM - this is played on a non dedicated server and has the heli's inserted in it ( YOU MUST PLAY ) and (2) TVTM_D this is for dedicated servers and has no heli insert.
OK enough talk about the making of BlackHawkDown.
I hope you enjoy it.
Radiator
BLACKHAWKDOWN
SOMALIA - EAST AFRICA - 1993
Over 300.000 civilians die of starvation.The most powerful of all the warlords, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, rules the capital - Mogadishu.
He seizes all international food shipments. Hunger is his weapon.
In late August, America's Elite Soldiers, Delta Force, Army Rangers and the 160th SOAR are sent to Mogadishu to remove Aidid and to restore order.
The events of 1993 shocked the world. The mass loss of lives and the public outcry from the Somalian people, forced President Clinton on 1:00 pm, June 18th, 1995 to order an inquest on the events of that devastating day. Two weeks later, all officers from the Major General, the Captain, down to the Cook, were stood down pending the outcome of the inquest.
NINE YEARS LATER, the inquest released a 5000 page report. The findings found that there was one piece of evidence that could incriminate Major General William F. Garrison. Which left the new President Bush's hands tied to intervene. On December 23rd 2004 the trial of Major General William F. Garrison started at 12:00 pm. There were 400 interviews, 3000 pieces of evidence and this continues to the PRESENT DAY.
A soldier has just been called up to testify. The Judge turns to the soldier and says, "Well Sergeant, Congratulations on the Purple Heart."
The Soldier replies, "Thank you, your Honour."
The Judge continues, "All we need, is for you to tell us what happened that day from the beginning."
The soldier pauses, then says "Well Sir, it's like this....................................................."
And that's all I am going to tell you about the mission, apart from your options and the must do's.
At the start of the mission you can rearm your weapons, you have a choice of walking, running, jumping in heli that comes back to take more troops in, there are 3 different heli flights or taking a ride in one of 23 pickup vehicles to Mogadishu.
There are 7 different entry points to the city. One is a usable key pad entry. Once in,if you find the crashed BlackHawk you must stay in the zone until the time counts down.
You must stay with the crashed BlackHawk crew-member until he has been evacucated, if you're a ghost, or stay with him until he is at Mohamed Farrah Aidid's headquaters then assassinate him, if you are a rebel. You get points for every BlackHawk crew-member rescued (ghosts) and points for every BlackHawk crew-member killed (rebels).
After you find the working phone you must remember the password ( It's a sound so it's spoken to you) and then you must press the right access panel in the underground security room. If not the game will end. Once the adat locations are found, you have 2 options. (1) Blow all the adats by hand or (2) climb the tower to a security control computer, this computer will powerup all the key pads for you to unlock and open all the doors (The key pads and the computers are usable by pressing your use key). In the undergound computer room you can call for one air strike. (A MUST SEE).you have 3 choices, adat 1 2 or 3, If one adat is blow up by hand, then the computer for that adat shuts down. You get points for destroying the adat (ghost) and points if an adat is not destroyed (rebels). Once all 3 adats are destroyed you must stay out of the rebels car park: air strikes blow the car park up. At the end, the more ghosts make it home, the more points your team gets (ghosts) and the more ghost die, the more points the rebels get. There's a sinbin in the game - this means you have 2 lives, on the second death you can not respawn until all of your teammates are dead or if the remaining alive teammates finish the task they're on, ie.once a crashed BlackHawk crew-member is evacucated then everyone is respawned and restored with 2 lives. There's a lot more that I have forgotten, but you get the idea.
The download
Because of the sounds in this game and the usable key pads and computers, you have to add some folders in to your Local\English folder.
They are sound and string
This is a one off mod and will not alter any of the original graw game and will not have to be deleted, if you remove the mission (blackhawkdown.bundle).
These file are needed if other have custom sounds in there missions.
once you download the files/folders you should have the files in these locations
Local\English\sound\settings
Local\English\sound\custom_sounds
Local\English\sound\sound_rego_1
Local\English\string\mission
and
blackhawkdown.bundle in to your customlevels folder
I have posted on the wiki about adding custom sounds, and I see no-one has registered, please give it a go, it will make your missions more enjoyable.
I will also add on the wiki how to add and setup the usable key pads and computers.
For all the boys that will open the map up in the editor, you must remove the pickup_loy_vehicle from loy_01 to loy_23 or there will be cars everywhere.
where are two maps (1) tdm, siege etc.. (world) and (2) the main mission ( world_tvtm)
One last thing this is a team V team missions, so I know a lot of you play Coop missions, but please give it a go and use this mission as a guide of your missions.
Play the TVTM mission and play it as a Ghost if there is only one playing.
This is a very big map and a very big mission script, so some of you with slow computers will have to lower your graphics to low.
P.S. I am in the making of a coop mission of this map too.
Download Here -DOWNLOAD
HAVE FUN
Rad...
